Stroke Incidence Increasing in HIV Patients

May 16, 2011

Over the past decade in the United States, there appears to have been a substantial and significant rise in patients hospitalized for stroke with coexisting HIV infection, according to findings of a study from the University of California, San Diego. When researchers analyzed all stroke hospitalizations, 0.09% of patients had comorbid HIV in 1997, compared with a rate of 0.15% in 2006. Factors independently associated with a higher likelihood of a comorbid HIV diagnosis were Medicaid insurance, urban hospital type, dementia, liver disease, renal disease, and cancer.